Casey & Lincoln Take On Disneyland

 

During the World of Color show I asked Lincoln, "Is it everything I said it was?"

His reply, "and more."

Under Pressure

At Disneyland there are signs for every ride indicating who can and can't ride. These signs are very important to me.
If there was a height limit, something about speed or dropping, or you couldn't be with child I was OUT!
If pregnant women, handicapped people, and people holding babies could ride something, I was set.
On the It's a Small World ride, they literally roll the wheelchairs onto the boats. I was pumped about this ride!

Now, I am claustrophobic.

There is a submarine ride that follows the Finding Nemo theme. On the warning sign at the beginning of the line it warns that if you can't handle enclosed spaces you shouldn't ride. I figured I'd be fine..

No matter how spacious it was, as soon as I was in my seat and they closed the hatch, my blood pressure went through the roof. My logical side kicked in and told me to chill out...my illogical side was panicking that we were going to sink, run out of air, that we'd be trapped in this cartoon like submarine till we all DIED!!!

Once the ride got going and the pretty music started playing I was able to chill a little bit. I focused on taking pictures and pretending that we weren't under water b/c knowing that brought on all of the illogical thoughts of being trapped and wanting to scream "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE IN HERE!" I pretended that the stuff outside the window was just some Disney magic and was really just a video. We were NOT under water.
This illusion I'd created kept me from hyperventilating and sucking the limited amount of precious oxygen out of the air where it needed to be to keep me and the small children alive.

So parents, you're welcome! My delusions saved your children.

Paint With ALL the Colors of the Wind

Not just some...don't be cheap.


Yes this is yet another post about Disneyland...but when the most exciting thing I did today was go drive around the block JUST b/c the parking spot closer to our apartment was open and I like being able to see my car (and there was a 10 pound bag of potting soil in the trunk that I didn't really want to haul across the apartment complex) there's just not much to discuss.

So..Disneyland. This was our view while we waited for the World of Color show and upon visiting this same location in the daylight, it is a pretty cool place to take a little girl who loves her some Disney princesses b/c during the day this is apparently where they all come. At one point I thought it was just the same girl changing dresses to pretend to be another one. But the families eat out on the porch at this restaurant and the princesses come and all say hi. Pretty cool (if you're a five year old girl.)

For me I just kept thinking how hot they must be with all those layers of tulle and the makeup and the shoes and on top of all that they had to be super sweet with their sweet voices to all the kids. I guess that's why they did short intervals...eesh.

I also just watched the World of Color on YouTube from the angle it was MEANT to be viewed from and didn't recognize the show at all. Next time we go, me and Lincoln are getting there when the gates open to get those stupid reserved seats so we can see it from THIS view. It was still pretty cool but from where we were you could not see all the videos. Plus our version had some TRON business thrown in at the end which was ok I guess, it gave everyone a very definite "leave early" moment.

Anyway, if you have 30 minutes of your day to waste away and have no intentions of coming to California to see this for yourself, have a look. If you'd rather be surprised by the awesomeness and have no idea what to look forward to on your hypothetical trip to Disneyland California Adventure, don't look.

A Very Merry Unbirthday To You!

I love these paper lanterns, so whimsical and fun.

One day I want to have a garden with a place to have dinner outside under shade trees with lights strung all in the trees. Or candles in mason jars hung all over. Quilted tablecloth. Mix matched chairs. Just an idea.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

There were very rare moments when I was able to find angles or hidden walkways where there weren't 500 other people trying to take pictures.

This was one of those times.

World of Color

(that IS in fact a song, it was playing when I took this picture)

Technically this picture was taken last night but I figured as a finale post for our Disneyland adventure I would put the "finale" pictures from the evening. This is called "World of Color" at Disneyland California Adventure. It's basically fireworks but with water...and sometimes fire. I hear there's something like this in Vegas, but never having been there I'll just take their word for it.

I can say that this show is pretty awesome and I'm sure it's even more awesome from the FRONT! Which apparently, Disney sucks everyone for all their worth and if you want to see this show from any decent angle you have to get a FastPass as soon as the park opens just so you can sit/stand in the prime areas of concrete that they rope off later and call "reserved."

Still very awesome and something I look forward to watching again with Lincoln next time I go to Disneyland.



After the water show we ran to the other park. Which by the way, I thought I was being clever trying to knock both shows out at once but apparently it is a very popular idea so we were herded with the other cattle/people to the other park and shoved into a roped area with thousands of other people so we could stand and watch fireworks over the castle.

The fireworks were very cool. One of the biggest "Disney" moments was when Tinkerbell came out of the mountain and flew (via cable and harness) in front of the castle while the fireworks were going off. You can see her in this picture. She's that larger glowing dot under the fireworks.

This girl (or boy) deserves some kind of medal of bravery b/c I don't think there's any amount of money that could make me suit up in some fairy costume (probably highly flammable), suspended from some wire, and "fly" many many feet over the ground WHILE things are blowing up in the air around me. I'm sure she (or he) was very safe but still...I get nervous with fireworks over my head or anywhere nearby...much less being shot AT my head.

It was very Disney magical and what not. It was a lovely predecessor to being herded again like cattle towards the Fantasmic show.

The Fantasmic show was pretty impossible to capture on camera from our prime standing position (again we weren't allowed in the "reserved" section of sidewalk) so no pictures of that. But there are hundreds (literally) of pictures I'll post to facebook and probably use as an update over the next week or so.

M-I-C-K-E-Y----M-O-U-S-E

[Today] we headed off for a 13 hour day full of Disneyland business. Our plan was to knock out DisneyLAND in one day and then try to catch all three night shows. California Adventures water show started at 8 and lasted about 30 minutes, then Disneyland had fireworks at 9 and their Fantasmic was at 9:15. I was bound and determined to kill ourselves over this so that on our second day we wouldn't have to hang around for hours and hours just to see the shows.

Anyway, we got there shortly after the park opened at 8 (around 8:30) and left shortly after my right foot fell off (around 9:45.)

It was my first trip to Disney with my good camera and as fun as I hoped it would be, it was equally frustrating trying to snap pictures without someone walking in front of me. Plus I didn't have a cute cute little girl dressed as a princess to pose in all the pictures like this one.



Maybe one day :)

or maybe one day we'll have our niece with us and I can just mooch off of her cuteness.